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What the Small Town may 
do for Itself 



BY 



CHARLES KNOWLES BOLTON 



(Gopsrigbt) 



Reprinted from the 

iRew England Machine •; 

March, 1896 



r :•/: 



WHAT THE SMALL TOWN MAY DO FOR ITSELF. 



By C Italics Knowles Holt on. 



AS we drive through our beautiful 
New England towns which lie 
among the hills and along the 
wooded streams, it is difficult to be- 
lieve that these peaceful homes pro- 
duce more murderers in proportion to 
the number of inhabitants than our 
largest cities. Yet this is the case. 
Where an angry word is the chief 
event of a month, it assumes a magni- 
tude it could never have in the life of a 
man surrounded by his fellows. Soli- 
tude gives too much occasion for self- 
analysis and for brooding over one's 
misfortunes and one's grievances. 
Robinson Crusoe's safety lay in his 
mental activity; and it is his example 
in this that is needed in our country 
towns. One hundred years ago the 
isolated farmer spent his winters as a 
cordwainer, a broom-maker, or a 
cooper. But the cities have absorbed 
these industries and the farmer too 
often passes the long months almost 
in idleness. 

The most important step in behalf 
of the country town is perhaps the 
establishment of the public library. 
There are now very few Massachu- 
setts towns without public libraries. 
New Hampshire makes it compulsory 
for her towns to establish libraries; 
and other states will not be far behind 
her. Where there is a state board of 
library commissioners with power to 
direct and aid in establishing town 
libraries, there certainly should be 
some one in a place public-spirited 
enough to claim this assistance. The 
library — no longer a retreat for de- 
generates — will then become the intel- 
lectual and social centre of the village. 
It should have books for serious study 
and for light reading: it should have 
a room for exhibitions, lectures and 
.concerts, and another for children. 
More than all. it should have a con- 



versation room with an open fireplace. 
It is a rare New England town which 
is not the birthplace of some man 
wealthy enough and willing (if prop- 
erly approached) to give such a 
library building. 

■nt From the library the young people 
will draw material for a live debating 
society, the older people material for 
literary and art clubs. There is noth- 
ing discussed in Paris, London, New 
York or Boston which the smallest 
public library may not know about in 
£t fortnight. 

The public schools are now foster- 
ing a method of study popularly 
known as coordination. The history, 
the political science, the art, the poetry 
of a country grow side by side ; more 
than that, they are interdependent for 
this growth, and in studying these 
subjects at the same time children are 
unravelling the strands of a natl 
fabric. The vitalizing ; 
method is, in part, the interest which 
is awakened in local co-n 
When a lady offered a pi E 
best essays on the first soldier of Brook- 
line, Mass., killed in the Revolution, it 
seemed hardly possible that Irish boys 
of twelve could grasp the subject. 
One of the most creditable efforts, 
however, was a composition written 
and illustrated by an Irish boy. For 
the early traits of his hero the boy 
drew upon the story of Washington, 
and for his illustration of the soldier 
drilling before the old orthodox 
church Hong ago torn down) he 
sketched his own familiar Catholic 
church. He had the right idea; and 
the Revolution will always remain as- 
sociated in his mind with his own 
town. 

In the high school a study of 
national and municipal needs widens 
and intensifies the interests of every 



scholar. The master of the school 
discusses each local problem as it 
arises, and takes both boys and girls 
to the town meetings, that they may 
see the same problems argued and 
voted upon for the final good or hurt 
of the town itself. In preparing for 
this, the previous development and 
cost of maintenance of the various de- 
partments of schools, police, lighting, 
street cleaning and watering, etc., are 
tabulated by the students, who then 
attempt to explain the fluctuations 
which appear on these graphic charts. 
In their debating society, an evening 
in each year is given to a mock session 
of some representative body, the city 
council, the state senate, or the na- 
tional upper house. These are an 
educational force as well as a source of 
entertainment to the whole com- 
munity. 

From this same progressive spirit 
has grown the high school paper, 
which has printed not only the essays 
and verses of the students, but also a 
series of papers by a well known grad- 
uate, an historical sketch of the school 
alumni by a former master, 
it cresting local diary, edited 
with explanatory notes. 

As dn outcome of this fostering of 
local interest two prizes for original 
investigation in local history are now 
offered each year by a citizen to the 
senior class in the high school. It 
has been a surprise to see how much 
that is new and permanent in value 
may be gathered together by young 
people who have had no special train- 
ing but are spurred on by the novelty 
of a fresh task. The last year has wit- 
nessed the rescue from oblivion of a 
number of quaint anecdotes of the 
Revolutionary period. And the store 
of data gathered from rare and un- 
familiar books or papers seems un- 
ending. For example, the career of a 
Continental soldier who was a credit 
to the town has been thoroughly 
brought to light, even to the details of 
his daily habits, in the face of the state- 
ment ^ade by a local historian that 
"nothing- could be found about him." 



This year the stories of our men in the 
Civil War will be collected. 

Some of us wondered how these 
essays could be printed, both for safe 
keeping and for the benefit of other 
towns. An historical society often 
does little more than print addresses 
of the presidents and obituaries of the 
members. In such a company the 
essays would have been lost sight of, 
or would have been sent down to pos- 
terity burdened with emendations by 
the members. 

At last the following prospectus was 
drawn up and printed : 

" The Brookline Historical Publication 
Society. 

" The Brookline Historical Publication 
Society is organized to collect and print in a 
uniform series such manuscripts and mate- 
rial not readily accessible as shall seem 
worthy of permanent preservation. 

"There shall be a Publication Committee 
of three to decide upon all matters suggested 
by the aims of the Society. 

" The object of membership is to provide 
funds to carry on the work of the Society, 
and each subscriber of the annual fee of one 
dollar ($1.00) will receive free all publications 
of the Society. 

MISS 



Treas. 

Standing Publication Committee. 

" N. B. Subscriptions may be sent at 

once to the Treasurer at the Public Library." 

It may be noted that there are no 
officers, no elections, no meetings and 
no rules. What has been the result? 
Subscriptions have come in so rapidly 
that we shall print during the first 
year four "publications" besides the 
prize essay which alone it was our first 
intention to issue. Those already 
printed are: A letter written in 1810 
by Rebecca Boylston to her uncle, tell- 
ing of changes in the town, and of her 
engagement; the Sharp family papers; 
and Brookline in the Revolution. The 
church records, the graveyard inscrip- 
tions and collections of wills, deeds, 
etc., will follow. 

Every town has its letters and its 
diaries which should be preserved. 
One lady whom I approached for 
papers declared that she had nothing 



/ 



of value. After some patient ques- 
tioning I secured a package of deeds 
ana wills; of these thirteen were dated 
prior to the year 1700, one of them 
only thirty years after the coming of 
the "Mayflower." The autographs of 
Governors Shirley, Bellingham and 
Dudley gave them the dignity of 
history. 

Our society was started with an 
outlay of about six dollars for circu- 
lars and envelopes, besides six hundred 
one-cent stamps. Each publication 
of eight pages costs ten dollars for 
three hundred copies, and a dollar 
for each one hundred copies extra. 
A bookseller assures us that when 
we have enough numbers to make a 
volume, with title-page and index, he 
will be able to add to our treasury by 
further sales. 

In looking about for support it 
should be kept in mind that "new- 
comers" are as ready to aid such an 
enterprise as the members of old fam- 
ilies. The dollar, like the prey of the 
hunter, often lurks in unexpected 
places. 

The result, and to some extent the 
aim, of intensifying the interest of 
young people through giving their 
work a local application, has been an 
awakening of parents. To secure 
their more active cooperation with 
teachers, and to unite every interest 
which could increase the intellectual 
activity of the community, the super- 
intendent of schools initiated the 
movement which has resulted in the 
formation of the Brookline Educa- 
tion Societv, with its five hundred 



members. Already the possibility 
of a common meeting ground has 
been found of immense advantage for 
a better understanding of aims and 
standards, as well as for the discussion 
of such questions as proper hygienic 
conditions, recreation and sleep, with 
the parents themselves. A closer and 
better relation between parents and 
teachers has followed the growing 
affection and respect between teachers 
and scholars. 

During the present winter a course 
of afternoon historical lectures is be- 
ing delivered at the high school, open 
not only to the high school pupils, but 
to those of the upper grades of the 
grammar schools. Local history and 
the Civil War furnish the themes. 

All these efforts, it will be noticed, 
have more or less directly served to 
bind together an increasing number 
of people, through appealing to their 
local and social interests. And any 
methods which do this successfully, 
especially in our smaller towns, help 
to produce a healthier and happier 
community. Brookline is, of con 
a peculiarly circumstanced t< " 
there are few where these thii 
could have been started so ea 
But, the way once p< 
there are not many important towns 
where work like this cannot be done; 
and there is no town so small or 
poor that it could not undertake 
modest things in such directions. 
Could anything be better to help 
our country towns to a serious, 
worthy and entertaining intellectual 
life? 



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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



014 077 289 6 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



014 077 289 6 



Hollinger 

pH 8.5 

Mill Run FOS-2193 



